The New Year's Eve Ball
by froggyparty96
Summary: Find out who Lily and her friends Alice, Mellisa, and Taylor are going to the ball with! Secrets, romance, dancing, and lots of fun!
1. Getting Ready

"Okay,I'm ready to get this over with," Lily muttered.

"Oh,but Lily,let me just get you my new hair clip-"

"I'm fine, Alice!" Lily interjected, pushing her over-excited best friend away from her already perfect hair.

"Okay...Are you nervous?" Alice questioned Lily eagerly.

"Nervous...Why should I be nervous?" Lily said defiantly.

"Oh come on...You're going to the New Year's Eve Ball with _James Potter_!" Alice exclaimed.

"So?"

"So...Okay,so James's head used to be terribly over-inflated,but were in seventh year now and he's a great guy! Also,you have to admit he's pretty hot!"

Lily just watched Alice walking around their dorm while pouting slightly.

"And," Alice continued, "I know you have a crush on him."

"What?!" Lily said, jumping up. "There is no way I have a crush on James Potter! I only agreed to go to the ball with him because all the other guys were already taken and I just wanted him to shut up!"

"I've seen you staring at him," said Alice smugly.

"In his dreams," said Lily,but she turned away from her friend, pretending to dig through a drawer for her lip gloss, to hide the small blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Come on, Lily. You're my best friend. You know you can tell me anything-"

"Let's go, I'm ready," Lily said quickly, smoothing out her dark purple dress and heading down the stairs to meet her other friends, Mellisa and Taylor.

All the guys had agreed to leave early on the night of the ball and meet the girls in the great hall, so the common room was full of different bright colors, and not punctured by any black tuxes, Lily noticed.

"Oh my gosh, y'all look so beautiful!"

Lily had always been amused by the way that Taylor talked. Even though she was raised in England, her parents were Muggles from the southern United States. But this was just one thing that made Taylor unique. She had a strange taste in men. Or at least Lily thought so. Mostly because of who she was dating at the moment, though...

"I can't believe I'm goin' to the New Year's Eve Ball with Sirius Black!" Taylor exclaimed.

Sirius was alright to hang out with, but to date...? Lily wasn't sure about that.

"Why, Taylor? You two have been dating for three months!" Lily said.

"I know...He's just so sweet though! I love him so much!"

Lily looked around and saw Mellisa putting on earrings in the mirror across the common room, looking quite nervous.

Mellisa was a sweet girl. She was usually quiet, but when with her friends, Mellisa would do anything for a laugh. Even though she used to be terribly shy, she was staring to come out of her shell, which had been noticed by several of the boys at Hogwarts. Since Mellisa was extremely pretty to begin with, she had recently been a talking point for many of their conversations. Mellisa had never had a boyfriend before, but she did have a crush on a certain brainy marauder...

"Hey, Mell," Lily smiled. "Finally, some peace and quiet."

"Yeah, if that's what you're looking for, though, it's going to be pretty hard to come by tonight. What with James Potter and all," she grinned back.

"Well what about you and Remus, huh? What's going on there?" Lily said, nudging Mellisa with her elbow.

"Oh shut up, Emralds."

"You dare?"

"Yes I dare!'

"Emralds" was Lily's nickname which was usually only spoken by the Marauders.

"I would so challenge you to a pillow fight to the death right now, but my hair is finally cooperating," Lily said.

Mellisa laughed as Taylor, in pink, and Alice, in pale blue, walked up.

"Ready to go?" Alice asked.

"Yep," Mellisa answered.

"Duh!" Taylor replied.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Lily said grimly as they all started down the corridor, laughing.

It's a shame Peter had to go home for the holidays and miss the ball, Lily thought. It was looking like it was going to be a lot of fun. But, she figured, he most likely wouldn't have gotten a date anyway, so it was probably for the best that he was absent.

"Okay," Mellisa said quietly as they all stopped walking abruptly in front of the corner they had to turn to get into the great hall. "Let's do this."

_**Please review if you want the next chapter!!!**_


	2. Tammy Banklee

They turned the corner and saw their dates out in the middle of the crowd, in conversation.

The girls walked cautiously towards the boys. Well, most of them did...

"Hey! Sirius!" Taylor yelled.

Sirius ran toward her (wait,was he wearing a _purple_ tuxedo?!) and wrapped her up in a big bear hug.

"Heeeeeeeey!" he said. "Ready to dance?"

"Of course," she smiled. And as Sirius turned and pulled her away to the dance floor, she gave her friends a little wink and a smile over her shoulder.

Frank emerged out of the crowd next and looked nervously at Alice. "Um... hi.... You looked beautiful," he said, smiling weakly.

"Thank you," she smiled. "And you look exceptionally handsome."

Frank walked forward and put his arm around Alice's shoulder. "Hungry?" he asked.

"Starved," she confirmed as they walked away to find a table.

Next to come out of the huge mass of people was Remus.

He stood still and stared at Mellisa for a second before saying, "Hi, Mellisa."

"Hello, Remus," Mellisa smiled nervously.

"So..." he said.

"Yep..." Mellisa said.

"Mhmm..." Remus said

"So..." Mellisa replied.

"Want to dance?" he laughed.

"Okay," she said, laughing too at their silly conversation.

Now that they had left, Lily was left alone with-

"James, hi," Lily said.

"Hey, Lils. Wow, you look gorgeous... How did I ever get such a lovely date to the ball?"

"Guess you're just lucky," she smiled, turning pink.

"So, do you want to, maybe, dance, or something?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," she replied. It unnerved her slightly to see James acting so nervous. He was usually so cool and calm... What was wrong with him? Was she doing something wrong?

As they stepped on the dance floor and James started spinning her around lightly, Lily suddenly felt an odd sensation in her stomach. Like she was going to throw up, but in a good way. Weird...She'd never felt like that before...What did it mean?

The song ended and they stopped spinning to aplaud the band.

"Can I get you something to drink?" James asked.

"Uh, sure. Thanks," Lily smiled.

As James left, Lily could see Sirius and Taylor dancing enthusiastically in the middle of the room, being cheered on by many others.

She smiled to herself as Remus and Mellisa walked up.

"Having fun?" Mellisa asked.

"Yep. James went to get drinks."

"You know, he really likes you," Remus suddenly chimed in.

"He-oh-I...He does?" Lily finally spluttered out.

"Duh! Are you blind?" Mellisa exclaimed. "Even I can see it!"

"He-" But Lily was spared answering when James walked up with two butterbeers.

"Here you are, my lovely Emeralds," he grinned.

Lily threw a meaningful glance at Remus, and Remus raised his eyebrow, smirking.

James, who had been looking out over the crowd, turned around and said that he was going to see Sirius and would return shortly.

"Alrighty," Lily smiled.

James walked off into the crowd and started a dance-off with Sirius while Taylor went to the restroom.

Suddenly, Lily's arch enemy, Tammy Banklee, walked up.

"Hello_ Lily_...So sorry to see you're here alone...Of course, I expected nothing more...I'm here with Mike..." said Tammy, smirking widely.

Mike Davis was a not-so-bright beater on the Slytherin quidditch team, but for some reason, he was still quite popular.

"_Actually_...I'm here with James," Lily smiled.

"James...James_ Potter_?" Tammy asked, looking stunned.

"The very same," Lily smirked. "I know how jealous you must be that my date actually knows the whole alphabet..."

Lily, Mellisa, and Remus laughed.

Tammy just stood there, mouthing wordlessly for a few seconds, then said "You better watch yourself, _Lily_," and strutted away.

"Wow, what is_ her _problem?" Mellisa said.

"I dunno, but she's definately going to try to get revenge somehow," replied Lily.

Remus ellbowed Lily and said, "James is coming. And anyway, what's the worst she could do?"

Lily nodded, trying to push Tammy out of her head.

Really, what _could_ Tammy do?


	3. Voices In My Head

James jogged up to Lily, out of breath after his dance contest with his bestfriend.

"I so won," he said.

"Did not!" Sirius yelled through the crowd.

"So how're you enjoying your night with the most handsome man in this school?" James said smoothly.

Lily eyed James disapprovingly, reminding him of his promise to not be so cocky and arrogant, and to be as caring and sweet as Lily secretly knew he could be.

"Oh! Sorry, Lily! It won't happen again, I swear... You know you look gorgeous in purple?"

Lily smiled to herself at how charming he was, but tried not to let him see.

"Yes, I know."

James smiled.

"There's that sense of humor I love," he said quietly.

"Come on, Mellisa, I think we should go get some drinks..." Remus smiled as he guided his date away from James and Lily.

James looked at Lily. She just ignored him and looked out at the dancefloor, thinking he would stop eventually. He didn't. Finally, she had to give in.

"What?" she asked him irratably as she turned toward him.

He didn't answer, and just stared into her eyes.

Lily became as mesmerized as James seemed to be. She looked at his beautiful hazel eyes, wondering what he was thinking.

As a matter of fact, James was thinking, _"Okay, I've got her looking into my eyes lovingly...Okay, not really, but she's looking at me and I'm looking at her lovingly. What do I do now?!" _

_"Kiss her! Kiss her!" _a voice in the back of his head said.

_"Well obviously I'd love to! But what if she slaps me? What if she still doesn't like me? What if she doesn't want to kiss me?!"_

Lily was thinking, "_I wonder how much longer I can stand this... The more I look into those gorgeous eyes, the more I fall for him... But I don't want to fall for him at all! Imagine what would happen to my reputation!"_

_"Well..." _said a voice in the back of _her_ head._ "He _is_ pretty popular. What would _that_ do for your reputation?"_

_"True..." _she thought to herself.

James took a step closer, but did nothing more, waiting for Lily to do something.

Lily blinked extremely slowly, thinking things through and trying not to look into James's eyes any longer.

James mistook this blink for Lily closing her eyes and waiting for him to kiss her.

As she saw James close his eyes and start leaning in very slowly, Lily had an internal freakout. She wasn't sure if she even_ liked _James, much less if she wanted to _kiss_ him...

James was ever so slowly creeping closer to her lips...


	4. The Kiss

"Wassup, homies?" Sirius said loudly, backing into Lily and James because for some reason, he was walking backwards. "I didn't interrupt anything important, did I?"

_"Thank God! Thank God! Thank God!" _Lily thought.

James thought of several very violent things to do to Sirius while he was asleep that night.

"No, just talking," Lily said, faking calmness.

"Oh okay, good," Sirius said. "Oh, here comes my little hottie now. Hey, little Taylor Baby!"

"Hey, Hunky!" Taylor winked at the, admittedly, hunky marauder.

"How's your evening been?" Taylor asked Lily, glancing at James.

"Fine, I guess," Lily said, not meeting Taylor's eyes.

"Yeah... Right..." Taylor said looking between James and Lily.

James was suspiciously very interested in his sleeve.

"It's bloody hot in here," Sirius said. Really, it wasn't. He had just been running around like a fool. "Come outside with me to get some fresh air, eh, James?"

James's head snapped up at the mention of his name.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, okay."

James turned and followed Sirius out of the huge front doors into the courtyard. He turned to look at Lily as he walked away, but she wasn't looking at him. She had probably known he would turn around.

"_Gotta look away, gotta act like I'm talking to someone…" _Lily was thinking.

"Hey, Taylor. Sup?" she said quickly.

"Lily! What's happening with you and Potter, huh?"

"_Oh, of course she has to bring him up…"_ Lily thought.

"Nothing really. Pretty boring night, actually. I'd just like to go up to our room and put on my pajamas-"

"YEAH RIGHT, LILY! I believe I just saw you and James almost KISS!"

"Shh, keep your voice down, you bloody idiot!" Lily said as aggressively as she could while still trying to keep her own voice down.

Taylor, unfazed by a 'bloody idiot' comment between friends, said, (at almost the same volume as before), "Well? Explain!"

"Well…" Lily said. "I… I don't know what happened… But I was _not_ going to kiss him."

"Why were you so close, then?"

"Well… Maybe he wanted to kiss me. But I would never allow _that_…"

"Right…" said Taylor, not believing that Lily didn't want to snog James.

Suddenly, as Taylor stared at something over Lily's shoulder, Lily noticed an odd, blank look cover Taylor's face. It was mostly a mixture of shock and worry.

Then, Taylor said, "Well, if you're not into James, I suppose _that_ doesn't bother you?"

Lily turned to see James in the middle of a passionate-looking kiss with Tammy Banklee.

**************(A few minutes earlier)**************

"So, mate, how's your night been?" Sirius asked James as they walked out into the cool, crisp night.

"Well, I ALMOST kissed Lily, if you hadn't interrupted!" James said angrily. "Couldn't you have waited _one more minute_ to crash into us?... By the way, why were you walking backwards?"

"Long story," said Sirius. "But anyways, Lily Evans was actually going to kiss _you_?"

"I don't know… Maybe… I guess I'll never know! Man, she's probably in there right now laughing at what a fool I am for thinking that she would ever like me…"

"Prongs, I can't believe you!"  
"What?"

"You've never doubted yourself! You're the almighty James Potter! Don't doubt that Evans likes you because I've seen the way she looks at you! You have to believe in yourself!"  
"When did you become a preacher…" James mumbled as he and Sirius started heading back to the door after walking a circle around the courtyard.

Sirius chuckled. "All part of my job as a best friend," he said. "Ew, Tammy Banklee at eleven o'clock."

James turned.

"That's four o'clock, dummy…" Sirius said as he turned James in the right direction.

Tammy walked toward them. "Hello, Sirius," she said, sneering. "Hello—James," she said seductively.

"What do you want?" James and Sirius said at the same time.

"Oh, nothing with _you_…" she said at Sirius. He stuck his tongue out at the Slytherin.

"But you, James, look _very_ handsome tonight," she said with one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah…" said James. "Well, we're just going to go now-"  
Tammy cut him off as she grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him right on the lips. James struggled to get away, but Tammy was holding him securely around the neck. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to James, Tammy pulled her face a little away from his, but not by much. Still holding his shirt, she whispered, "Let's hope your little _Lily_ saw _that_ one."

She grinned wickedly and walked away.

James stood there in shock, his mouth gaping.

"WOW," Sirius said, also in shock. "Well… Let's get out of here."  
James and Sirius walked into the Great Hall, past a girl crying and her friend comforting her.

"Poor girl, must be having a terrible night," James said. "Wait… That's Lily!"

James turned around and ran to Lily's side.

"Lily, are you okay?" he said frantically.

"Get out of here," Taylor said fiercely. "We saw you kissing Miss Banklee."

James's heart dropped. So she _had_ seen.

"Lily, I am _so_ sorry. I didn't kiss her, she kissed me! I would _never_…" James said honestly.

Lily looked up with tears in her eyes and mascara running down her face.

"James… I thought you'd changed…" Lily said, looking directly into his eyes. "Come on, Taylor, let's go…"

Lily and Taylor got up as Mellisa, Remus, Alice, and Frank walked up.

"What's going on—" Alice started to say, but Taylor grabbed her and Mellisa by the arms as the four girls stalked off.

"What was that about?" Remus said.

James explained what happened with Tammy.

"Oh… So that's what Tammy can do…" Remus said. "So, how are we going to fix this?"

"Man, I don't know how to make her believe me…" James said with his head in his hands. "I really, _really_ like her and I can't let this ruin our relationship…"

Sirius, Remus, and Frank looked at each other sadly, trying to figure out what to do.

"Don't worry, James, we can fix this," Frank said.

"Yeah…" said Remus thoughtfully. "Hey… I have an idea…" he said as he spotted Tammy across the room…


	5. Veritaserum

"Let's go over there and ask Tammy to tell Lily what really happened," Remus suggested.

'Yeah, right! Dude, she is _evil_. There's is _no_ _way_ she'd agree to that," James said.

"We could _make_ her..." Sirius said as he cracked his knuckles and grinned evilly.

"Shut up, Sirius."

"Fine, fine, just saying..."

"How about... we slip a truth potion in her drink?"

"That's brilliant, Remus! How devious!" Frank exclaimed.

"But wait... Where are we going to get a truth potion?" James asked glumly.

"Well, actually, I have some left over from Slughorn's class. I got a good grade for it, so it should work just fine," Remus said, though not too enthusiastically. He wanted to help his friend, but he didn't like manipulating people with magic.

"You'd do that for me, Moony? I'm touched," James said, placing his hand over his heart dramatically.

"Just go do it before I change my mind. Accio _Veritaserum_!"

They only had to wait a few moments before they saw a small bottle of potion zooming towards them through the crowd, past some confused looking party-goers.

"Oh, can I come with you—PUH-LEEEASE, Jamsie?" Sirius squealed, who was always ready for mischief making.

"Of course, Padfoot! Let us go, before Moony reports us to the headmaster!"

"Remus and I will go tell the girls what you guys are doing," Frank said.

"Thanks! See you soon!" James replied.

He and Sirius started creeping through the huge crowd like spies.

"Okay, spies walk too slowly. Let's get moving," James said.

"Agreed. Even though that was fun."

"Target spotted."

They saw Tammy dancing (while holding her drink).

"Shoot. Looks like we'll have to wait. I hate waiting. How about we just knock her out?" Sirius asked.

"Then how would she take the potion and talk to Lily?"  
"Oh yeah…"

A few minutes later, Tammy put her drink down, away from all the other glasses. Apparently she didn't want to get her drink mixed up with the others. Perfect.

The boys recognized their ideal opportunity as Tammy and her friend Mariah giggled their way to the restroom.

"Now or never."

James snuck forward and dumped some of the light pink liquid into Tammy's glass, while Sirius stood in front of him, whistling casually.

"Come on, let's go. We can watch from over there to see when she drinks it." James said as he pulled Sirius away.

It wasn't long before Tammy reappeared, surprisingly without Mariah. James and Sirius marched up to her, after she took a long drink from her glass.

"Hi, Tammy. I was just wondering if you could tell me what you really think about Sirius," James simply said.

"He's an annoying, pranking git, though he is cute and, so I've heard, a great kisser." She quickly covered her mouth with her hands and gasped, looking scared.

"I didn't mean to say that."

"Good, it's working," James whispered to Sirius and grinned. "Come with us," he said to Tammy, as he and Sirius each held her by one arm and pulled her across the room to where Lily and her friends stood.

"Lily, can I have one more chance? Please?" James asked desperately.

She just stared at him. He took that as a yes.

"Okay, Tammy, did you kiss me or did I kiss you?"

"I kissed you," she said.

James went on, "Why?"  
"To upset Lily."

All the while Tammy was speaking, she looked utterly shocked because she had no idea why she would be giving away this information to people she hated.

"Can I go now?" she said pathetically. It pleased Lily to see how uncomfortable she was.

"One more thing. Did I or did I not struggle to get away from you as you were kissing me?" James asked triumphantly.

"You were trying to get away, but you're not as strong as I am, apparently," Tammy said, trying to be her old nasty self.

"Thank you. Good-bye, Tammy."

"Whatever," she snapped, and stalked off.

Everyone just stood there looking at each other for an awkward moment, the boys feeling accomplished, and the girls feeling sorry for not believing James.

"Oh, James," Lily cried, and before he knew, Lily was in his arms.

James closed his eyes and held her tightly. Somewhere in the distance he heard someone say quietly, "Come on, guys. Let's give these two some privacy."

"Oh, James, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't believe you in the first place. And until I saw you in the arms of somebody else, I guess I didn't realize how much… how much I really, really like you," she said, looking straight into his eyes.

"Lily… I love you."

She dove back into his warm hug. James heard a muffled sound from against his chest.

"Sorry, didn't catch that, love," he said gently.

"I said… I said, I love you too," she said quietly, pulling away from his chest.

"Oh Lily, you don't know how long I have waited to hear that."


	6. Fairy Tale Endings

Lily rested her head softly on James's shoulder, and they swayed back and forth to the slow music. After the three or four minute long song, James and Lily felt completely at peace with the world. They kept rocking back and forth even a few seconds after the song ended. Then, James removed Lily's beautiful face from his shoulder and held it delicately between his hands. For a moment, he just stared at her beautiful features: Her green, almond-shaped eyes, her cute little freckly nose, and her soft, pink lips. He pulled her face towards his, and she didn't object.

This was the most amazing kiss Lily ever could have asked for. James caressed her back and she stroked his soft, jet-black hair, never wanting this moment to end. When it did end, however, she understood that all good things must come to an end. This seemed to be a concept that James couldn't grasp, however. He dipped her as though they were doing some kind of fancy ballroom dance, and, only supported by James's muscular arms, she kissed him again, even more passionately this time.

James pulled her back into a standing position, and Lily looked across the room to see all her friends smiling broadly at this wonderful moment. When they saw her looking, they all averted their eyes and pretended they were doing something else, all except Sirius, who yelled, "IT'S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!" and broke down into fake sobs of joy.

"Lily, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Duh!" Lily beamed, and just because she couldn't help it anymore, she kissed him again.

"Get a room!" Sirius yelled as he ran up.

"I am so happy for you! Man, Lily, I think I'm as excited as you are right now!" Alice squealed ecstatically.

"Even though I doubt that, Alice, I'm glad!" Lily smiled and hugged her best friend.

_She has the most amazing smile_, James noted.

"Congrats, guess all that hard work finally paid off!" Frank said as he patted James on the back.

"AWWW You two are the CUTEST!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Except for us, right?" Sirius said, as he tried to dip Taylor into a romantic kiss, though he nearly dropped her and missed her lips.

"Of course," she said as she stood up, straightened her dress, and kissed him sweetly.

Remus and Mellisa were standing to the side, a little awkwardly, just smiling at their happy friends.

"Well… That was romantic!" said Mellisa, trying to hint to Remus that she too would like a fairy tale ending.

"Yes… Think we should join in the fun?"

While Mellisa was trying to figure out what he meant, Remus wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into her (and his) first kiss. As they pulled away, they both blushed, and Mellisa giggled as she pulled him close and they danced slowly to the song that band played, even though it was an upbeat rock song.

Frank and Alice had no idea what anyone else was doing, seeing as they were having enough fun keeping each other busy.

"Well, this was a very fun night, wasn't it?" Lily smiled at James, as they sat down together.

"Best night of my life, Lily flower. I got to spend it with you," he said.

_My, he's charming_, Lily thought as she leaned sleepily on him. "I am tired though." She said.

As James sat there, looking down on Lily, he thought, _I am going to marry this girl someday._

And this thought stayed with him all night, including when Lily fell asleep nestled in his arms on the couch in the common room, after talking for hours, and just a little more kissing, of course.

_***PLEASE READ* Sorry this chapter was short, and sorry for all the other short chapters! Thanks for sticking with this story all the way through! I hope you liked it, and if you did, tell me, and I'll write more! Tell me what I could do better! When I described Lily's friends in the beginning, I know some of their traits seem a little weird or random, but I put a little of myself in each one, I guess. Alice's 'over-excited best friend-ness', Taylor's place of birth (the awesome South lol), and Mellisa's shyness. And Taylor's parents moved to England when they discovered she was a witch so she could go to Hogwarts. I had so much fun writing this story so… hopefully I'll have another good idea to write about! :D**_


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